Chapter 353: Tracking and Kawa

After I advanced to the seventh tier, my efficiency improved, and with Yuna helping me, we've made 108 in total. Next month might be even more.

Selina said.

She's someone who can't sit still.

In magical research, long waits are common, yet she always finds time to finish crafting those magic rings—now so routine they require no thought.

Luo De didn't look at those magic rings.

He pinched her cold, delicate face.

"These are all minor things. You need to take care of your health—do bloodshot eyes in zombies count as normal?"

He pried open her eyelid again.

Yuna chuckled bitterly: "Miss Selina hasn't rested in five days."

Selina continued with a cold, humorless smile: "Speaking of taking care of your health, I wonder who threw a month-long party at Henry's farm."

Hearing this, the arachnid elf's face flushed slightly, and she lowered her head in silence.

"I did call you over—it's just that you didn't come yourself."

Luo De shrugged.

He put the magic rings into his spell satchel.

He was about to leave when Selina called out to him:

"In every batch of magic rings, I embed a few with the 【Disassembly Feedback】 spell—you know that."

"Yes."

It was Luo De's request; though the spell can't reveal the disassembler's location or identity, it at least serves as a warning.

"Two days ago, the spell activated."

"Understood."

So I'm being watched.

Luo De wasn't surprised.

It's true that the Heavenly Court Flower Kingdom leaks slightly inferior homemade items, but no one matches his stable output and consistent quality.

Whether it's other organizations trying to get a share or the Heavenly Court Flower Kingdom itself, they're bound to be interested in his magic rings.

And besides.

Since even the few feedback spells she embeds in each batch have activated, statistically, whoever's investigating him has been watching for a while.

But luckily.

Since no one has approached him directly, they likely haven't discovered him yet.

Luo De thought for a moment.

He spent half an hour learning a few detection and tracking-cleansing spells.

Combined with the 【Disguise Field】 locked inside his body and the Were-dog's shared skill 【Scent Disguise】, he was confident no one could see through him.

MagiControl League, Market District.

Nearly two months have passed; the frenzy brought by MagiControl League's extradimensional cleanup teams has faded.

The streets of the Market District have returned to their former quiet emptiness.

Disguised, Luo De entered a snack shop one street away from his own store.

MagiControl League does a good job protecting anonymous shops.

Upon signing the contract, they give you a set of 【Item Teleport】 tools—allowing you to teleport goods into the shop without ever stepping foot inside, where magical puppets handle sales.

The process went smoothly.

Operating from a street away—how could they possibly find me?

Still, better to be cautious.

Luo De picked up his food box and dumped the uneaten hand-pounded dumplings and fried unknown skins into the trash.

Damn.

So disgusting.

Blocked.

Next time, I'll ask Oona which snack shop in the Market District is actually good.

The shopkeeper was a Bear Spirit—looks like a bear but a sentient race with decent intelligence.

He probably didn't see Luo De tossing the food away, and still beamed up to ask how the dishes were.

Luo De gave him a thumbs-up, said nothing, and walked past him.

But Luo De didn't plan to leave right away.

After all, he'd come this far—he might as well browse.

Magic accessories? No need—the forest has plenty of girls; he needed more stock.

Selina's spell materials for rings were running low, and Kali Site needed several hard-to-find items too—quite a few things.

Yet ten minutes later.

【Spider Sense】 told Luo De someone was watching him.

"Huh."

Not bad.

Looks like MagiControl League's 【Item Teleport】 tools aren't foolproof.

Teleportation spells aren't unbreakable.

One divination spell, 【Teleportation Prediction】, can locate the teleport destination.

But Luo De clearly remembered the MagiControl League's onboarding manual listed forbidden spells—and one key restricted zone was the Market District.

"Is there a mole inside MagiControl League?"

But this mole clearly held little power.

Maybe just enough to allow the tracker to set up divination spells.

Otherwise, he could've just checked Luo De's anonymous shop contract—why go through the trouble?

Luo De pretended not to notice.

He kept browsing, kept buying, spending nearly two hours to gather everything.

Then he blended into the outer crowd near the bureaucratic hall—where people were numerous and surveillance looser.

The instant he merged with the crowd, the 【Disguise Field】 activated, instantly changing his appearance.

After all, it was a field's power.

The tracker in 【Spider Sense】 lost sight of him, glancing around in confusion.

The tables have turned, buddy.

Luo De approached the hall's front desk, listening to the clerk chat with someone while pretending indifference, using his peripheral vision to track the watcher.

She was a middle-aged woman.

Slim, yet still attractive—a woman past her prime but still alluring.

They say women are like grapes—the older, the richer the flavor.

He'd never tasted old grapes—maybe

Nah, forget it. She's human. He had no interest.

Luo De stealthily snatched a skewer of fried insects from the clerk's desk, grabbing one.

Hmm. Bitter as hell.

Does MagiControl League even have anything edible??

He spat it back onto the clerk's desk.

The middle-aged tracker wasn't giving up—she began searching the bureaucratic hall.

She wouldn't find him, of course.

After half an hour, she finally gave up.

Slinking back to the Market District.

There, she spoke briefly with a man in a black robe, then headed toward MagiControl League's large teleportation array.

More people were here.

The cool female voice of "Lock Heart" continuously announced the next teleportation queue number.

MagiControl League's teleportation arrays were powerful.

But expensive.

Many MagiControl League staff opted to carpool to split costs.

This tracker did too.

Luo De easily slipped into her carpool and arrived in a small nation called Kawa.

The country had recently gained notoriety.

Snowball Weekly reported its dire conditions almost every other issue.

After all, it was the nation most severely affected by the eruption of the Twilight Mountain super volcano.

And sure enough.

The moment Luo De stepped out of the teleportation array, he was hit by stifling heat and oppressive stillness.

The sky was a dense, churning black.

Thick, rolling clouds of volcanic ash, thick with suffocating, acrid stench and unbearable gloom.

Look toward the north.

A massive black mountain, towering straight into the sky like a chimney of the industrial age, continuously spewed forth, giving birth to an orange-red river of magma flowing downward.

"Oh—"

Luo De felt a faint thrill.

After spending so long in the forest, how could one not be stirred by such an apocalyptic sight?

(End of Chapter)